The Mech Touch

As the council session continued to progress, everyone grew accustomed to the new dynamic.

The absence of a lot of leading military personnel caused the discussions in the Interim Leadership Council to unfold slower and with more time for deliberation.

The career politicians and detail-oriented bureaucrats just loved to spend their time arguing about specific details that most people would have overlooked.

It was not always useless chatter. These sorts of people were best at projecting policies into the future and imagining all of the intended and unintended consequences that would ensue.

Their vast body of experience and deep familiarity with implementing lots of different policies and directives added a lot of new perspectives on issues, enabling everyone to understand the pros and cons a bit better.

Not that it helped all that much to convince the councilors to change their minds if they already settled on their decisions before they entered the virtual meeting hall. Politicians were still politicians. Ves could clearly track the naked instances of tribalism.

While Ves was the leader of the newly formed Coalition of Faiths, he did not have to speak up on its behalf as often as he thought.

It appeared a couple of old faiths had managed to bribe or convince numerous councilors to act as their spokespersons.

It was quite easy for rich and wealthy churches such as the Diocese of New Rome and the Seekers of the Promised Land to offer second-rate and third-rate states enough benefits for them to become their temporary agents.

There was nothing illegal about it so long as the councilors remembered that they still needed to act in the best interests of their respective states and organizations.

The generous 'donations', 'subsidies', 'interest-free loans' and 'surplus hardware recycling dumps' ensured that the interests of their states and their new religious backers became a lot more closely aligned than before!

It would have been a lot better if the various religious organizations could place all of their representatives directly into the Interim Leadership Council, but that was not yet a viable option.

They should probably be able to get a seat at the highest table of the Red Collective once they formally registered themselves as sects under the new regime.

In any case, Ves already managed to form an implicit form of cooperation with these double-dealing councilors.

They spoke up on behalf of the faiths that backed them, making sure to advance the agenda of the Coalition of Faiths in all manner of smaller subjects in contention.

Ves meanwhile would play the role of a silent leader, offering enough political cover to the councilors to speak freely about advancing the cause of religion.

This was an unthinkable outcome in the previous council meetings. The secularists still possessed more than enough power to squash any proposals that clearly benefited religious organizations.

Yet now that the faiths had organized themselves in a cohesive political bloc under the leadership of a figure as prominent as Ves, no one dared to dismiss this group anymore!

The overall culture and custom of suppressing religion in the public sphere as much as possible had already crumbled because of the changes. Numerous councilors boldly spoke of giving more space for churches to operate in human society without receiving the backlash they would have incurred in the past.

While the Guardians of Order under the leadership of Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson did what they could to push back against the encroachment of religion, the second faction of the Red Collective had to actually put forth convincing arguments instead of relying on mindless knee jerk reactions. The ardent secularists could no longer secure automatic victories, especially now that everyone gradually concluded that ordinary science and technology would not save red humanity from its worsening crisis.

Soon enough, the session progressed to the point where Ves needed to open a discussion on another highly contentious subject.

He rose from the seat vacated by the Evolution Witch and automatically commanded everyone's attention once again.

Ves was starting to feel more and more comfortable in his new role. He might be lacking in experience, but he was rapidly learning the tricks of the trade.

At this point, he had fully established his authority as the hierarch of the Coalition of Faiths and the deputy chief councilor of the ILC. Under these duel identities, no one present dared to take him lightly anymore. He had fully cemented himself as one of the heavyweights in the current council.

"We have spoken much about how to organize the Red Collective, how many bases and outposts we must throughout human-occupied space and how many armies and fleets we must raise to protect our assets. What we have yet to discuss in detail is how we must pay for all of it. Many councilors have already submitted a large amount of proposals on this subject. Each of them are quite detailed and include realistic projections that should eventually lead to a healthy balance sheet in a few decades. However, they differ a lot in details, most notably who should bear the greatest burden."

Ves continued to stare into the eyes of every councilor in the virtual meeting room. Everyone had their own ideas about this subject.

"Before we debate the most viable proposals in earnest, I think it is a good idea to look back on how the Red Association and the Red Fleet are able to fund themselves. As the hegemons of red humanity, they are large and powerful enough to pay for most of their expensive activities, but they also rely heavily on taxation and resource tributes from the states under their supervision to fund even more extravagant activities. Ordinary citizens usually don't notice too much of this as none of them pay any direct taxes to the Red Two. It is only the states and large organizations that must offer their tribute to their rulers and protectors."

The burden was significant, but not high enough to provoke excessive resentment. Third-rate and second-rate states generally got off easy, but first-rate states had to share a bit more of their wealth in order to stay in the good graces of the Red Association and the Red Fleet.

It basically amounted to an official protection racket at a grand scale. While most governments worked like this, the Red Two generally extracted hefty amounts of wealth and resources without really giving back enough compensation to the states and organizations.

The Red Two mostly spent the collected tribute on their expensive research and toys. They also declined to give the states voting rights on how the mechers and fleeters should make use of their assets.

In other words, the Red Two and their predecessor organizations from the old galaxy had become accustomed to taxation without representation. They continually absorbed the nutrients from the masses while giving only scraps in return.

The mechers and fleeters managed to get away with this for a long time by virtue of their superior god mechs and huge quantity of warships.

After Ves briefly summarized how the RA and the RF paid all of their bills, he addressed what should be done for the Red Collective.

"We are not the mechers and the fleeters. The Red Collective may appear to become one of the RA and RF's brothers, but that does not mean it should blindly copy all of their flaws and bad habits. I think it is important to realize that the original mandate of the Collective already compels us to form a different relationship with the people we are tasked to govern and protect. Yes, I know that the Red Two is doing a lot to protect human civilization as a whole by fighting so hard, but that is not an excuse to treat our constituents as cattle."

His intentions already became obvious to numerous people, but Ves continued to elaborate in order to make his point clear to the others.

"Our future organization contains the word 'collective' for a reason. It is a group that is spawned from the earnest desires of the masses. That means we have an obligation to serve the masses in return. This is why the subject of funding cannot be separated from the subject of power. Those who pay money to fund our Collective should have the right to participate in our decision-making process."

Before he could speak any further, the spokesperson of the Guardian of Faiths immediately chose to raise an objection.

"Professor Larkinson, the impartiality and fairness of the Red Collective will come under question if it becomes beholden to the groups that cover most of its expenses. In a society as unequal and extreme wealth disparity as ours, your stance will make it far too easy for our Collective to devolve into an oligarchy. If the wealthiest contributors can take over a significant share of the voting rights by donating more money and resources than others, then it will be difficult for the Red Collective to hold onto the claim that it represents the common folk as well. You cannot possibly allow the deepest pockets to take over a superorganization that is not supposed to be beholden to special interests."

Ves pressed his lips for a moment. "Lieutenant-Commander Jameson, you raise a good point, but you have not allowed me to complete my speech. I am well aware of the dangers of what you have stated. It is absolutely not my intention to deny a voice to ordinary folk. It is one of the entire reasons why grassroots support for the formation of the Red Collective is so strong. Yet we cannot fund our extensive operations by taxing so many poor people. It is for this reason that I propose that we apply a bicameral system to our legislative branch. I am most in favor of proposals that set up an Upper Council and a Lower Council, each of which is designed to give a voice to two different sets of constituents."

That sent out a small shockwave throughout the Interim Leadership Council. Splitting the official leadership council into two was a fairly radical proposal!

"Let me explain why it is the best way for us to go forward." Ves continued as many councilors already started to make their own calculations and projections. "The Lower Council is the simplest and most straightforward gathering of lawmakers. It should comprise a proportional mix of representatives from first-rate, second-rate and third-rate states. We can discuss the weight of voting rights based on class, population size and other factors, but we must ensure that the average folk must always feel they have 'one of their own' in one of our highest decision-making platforms in order to believe the Red Collective is on their side."

This was bound to produce an incredibly contentious discussion.

The councilors from second-rate and third-rate states would push hard to allow population size to become the main variable that determined their share of voting rights.

The councilors from first-rate states and organizations would definitely oppose this move and try to argue that wealth, development level and societal contributions should weigh much more.

Ves had his own ideas on this subject, but he felt it was best to keep himself out of this mudfight as much as possible.

His focus instead centered on the other chamber.

"The Upper Council meanwhile should comprise of senators sent by the major financial contributors of the Red Collective. The senators should come from the largest states and organizations, but more importantly should also come from the sects under the supervision of the Red Collective. Think about it. Sects must subject themselves to heavy supervision, and are also expected to fill up a significant part of the coffers of the RC. It is only fair to give them a voice in how the Collective is run."

While the existence of the Lower Council should not provoke too many objections, the story was different for the Upper Council!

Letting the sects have a stronger say in the running of the Red Collective sounded like allowing inmates to gain a part of the management authority of their own prisons!

This was a proposal that strongly favored the Coalition of Faiths, but would definitely draw heavy opposition from the Guardians of Orders!

Ves had just ignited a crucial power struggle that would directly determine how much the Coalition of Faiths could gain control over the Red Collective!

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